Bord Bia Bloom – Ireland’s foremost garden show
The Irish love their gardens, and they’re good at it! Although I’m not one for a bucket list, Ireland’s premier horticulture event has always piqued my interest – The Bord Bia Bloom festival, the Chelsea of Dublin.
It’s always a shame when life is pulling you in so many directions, when you don’t get a chance to experience something you’ve wanted to do for years, but thankfully this year I was able to attend the 19th anniversary of this fabulous festival.
Held for five days, annually over Ireland’s end of May Bank Holiday. Set just outside Dublin in Phoenix Park, it has 70 acres of meadows and a beautiful walled garden.
Plant heaven hits you even before you enter the show. The walled garden is home to lines of espaliered trees, and rows of huge, deep flower beds bursting with mature sways of stunning perennials at every height, every species and colour imaginable. A living masterclass of what to plant with what.
Enter the show and at the heart of Bord Bia Bloom are its 21 show gardens, each telling a unique story. This year, themes ranged from sustainable living and mental health to cultural diversity and environmental conservation.
With talks, demonstrations, and performances across five stages, Bloom provides a wealth of knowledge and entertainment. Experts like Diarmuid Gavin, Jimi Blake, and BBC’s Adam Frost shared insights on gardening, sustainability, and design.
For me it’s all about the plants. I wasn’t disappointed. Walking around the show gardens i immediately noticed how it was the planting that was front of stage in nearly all the show gardens. Yes the gardens were all beautifully landscaped, brick built raised beds, stylish patios, corten steel ponds, metal and wooden structures, all expertly designed and constructed, however amongst it all and shining bright were the plants, and lots of them!
Like all flower shows key plants stand out, you notice a trend emerging. It’s those key plants that are talked about in the TV coverage and featured a week or so later in garden magazines. Bloom was no different, but I loved the choices across lots of the show gardens, for their prairie like, naturalistic and romantic qualities.
The plants that stole the show
Like all flower shows key plants stand out, you notice a trend emerging. It’s those key plants that are talked about in the TV coverage and featured a week or so later in garden magazines. Bloom was no different, but I loved the choices across lots of the show gardens, for their prairie like, naturalistic and romantic qualities.
Just a few examples include Achillea ‘Moonshine’ – dotted throughout a number of gardens, it literally shines, it’s also brilliant at knitting together a palette of species and colours. Stipa gigantea glistened and swayed in the light breeze, intermingled with Trollius chinensis ‘Golden Queen’. Lots of silver birch, bravely planted amongst borders, in raised beds and large pots, underplanted with Alchemilla mollis, evergreen ferns, Heuchera and Geum ’Totally Tangerine’. White digitalis was everywhere, tall and statuesque. Roses, roses, roses, so wonderful to see: ‘A Whiter shade of Pale’ gets my vote… but if i could choose one plant that stood out more than any other, was pointed at amongst groups of friends and ‘Googled’ it’s the small tree Cornus kousa ‘Milky Way’. It was the belle of the ball! Planted amongst free flowing perennials it looked majestic, its creamy white bracts happy and proud.
I genuinely loved most of the gardens, for me the two highlights were:
The Pot Gallery Garden (Gold medal). Designer: Alan Rudden
Showcasing how planting in pots, both freestanding and vertical, can be used creatively to create a green space, to me this garden demonstrated beautifully what plants will thrive in pots and how to create a garden in a pot. Bold and clever designs and choices, multi stemmed trees, tall romantic perennials and evergreen foliage. Lots of tall and broad pots, the key I think for success is to go large even in a small setting.
The Plant Lovers Garden (Feature Garden). Designer: Patricia Tyrrell
An abundance of planting for all year round interest, amongst simple landscaping that wouldn’t cost the earth. Boundaries created using climbers instead of a hedge or fencing – using Trachelospermum jasminoides ‘star jasmine’. Meadow-inspired planting lots of colourful perennials and grasses.
A wonderful, inspiring day. Highly recommended, a friendly, not overly crowded, show where you can actually see the show gardens, and chat about it with your partner in crime! Probably not great for my bank balance as there’s a few star performers I definitely want in my own garden.
All in all Bord Bia Bloom is more than a garden show; it is a celebration of Ireland’s rich horticultural heritage. You also get to visit Dublin and its many beautiful suburbs – so much to see, so little time!
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